COLD CASE: 'You don't forget'

Kin, officials seek answers in double homicide

Contributed photo
Mourners embrace at a funeral for Shane Stewart and Sally McNelly, two teenagers reported missing the Fourth of July weekend in 1988. Their remains were found four months later at a different location from where authorities found Stewart’s car.

Contributed photo
A Tom Green County Sheriff’s investigator examines remains found in the southeast portion of the south pool of Twin Buttes Reservoir. Hunters found remains, later identified as teenagers Shane Stewart and Sally McNelly, about four months after the two went missing in 1988.

Shane Stewart and Sally McNelly are San Angelo teenagers who authorities believe were killed in a double homicide.

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Almost 25 years ago Shane Stewart, with $11 in his pocket and plans to watch fireworks with his girlfriend, Sally McNelly, gave his dad a hug and walked out the door.

"Should have tackled him," his father, Marshall Stewart, said recently. "But you never know. We're going to live our own lives and end up where we end up. I just pray one day we get answers for what happened."

After a call from the park manager, Marshall Stewart, arriving at the same time as investigators, found his son's 1980 copper-colored Camaro abandoned at Isabel Harte Park, an area now part of San Angelo State Park.

The investigation that began that day became one of the state's top unsolved homicide cases.

Both teens were found four months later when hunters happened upon skeletal remains in a pasture south of Twin Buttes.

More than 10,000 investigative documents have been filed in the double homicide since July 5, 1988. A Whataburger receipt, McNelly's driver's license and hundreds of interviews preserved then may help solve the crime. Manner of death was a shotgun blast.

"I fully expect this case to be solved and that criminal charges will be filed at some point in the future," Tom Green County Sheriff David Jones said recently. "A lot of the people involved in this case were teenagers at the time. They have since grown up."

Investigators said they know there are people in San Angelo who have information or were involved in the killings. With the time that's passed, they hope those people realize what the case has done to the victims' families.

"We think it's time for them to come forth and talk with us," Jones said. "We're asking that from the public."

Rumors of cult activity surfaced because occurrences of animal mutilation had turned up in surrounding counties, but investigators said they don't believe it was the reason for the killing.

The case was aired on the television series "Unsolved Mysteries" on Sept. 18, 1991, but no leads resulted in an arrest.

Jones hopes bringing the case to the public will prompt people to come forward.

Those with children may have realized the loss Stewart's and McNelly's parents have suffered.

"It's time to come forth and talk to us," said Jones, who worked on the original case as a DPS investigator. "We want justice for the kids."

Shane Stewart's father has placed his faith in detectives who won't give up and in a God who has helped carry him through the past 25 years.

When he reads about a son or daughter disappearing, then being found months later, it brings back memories of searching — a memory he says a parent has until they die. He shares his story in hopes it helps other families, strengthens the community and encourages people to help solve his son's case.

"They need to make things right in this world and be ready for the next world," Stewart said.

For years after his son's disappearance and discovery of his body, Stewart attended counseling sessions, beginning at Compassionate Friends, a group for parents who have lost children, then branching off to form Survivors of Violence, a support group for families affected by homicide.

Sally McNelly, who had enlisted and was preparing to enter the Navy, was working at McDonald's that summer.

She told her parents she was going to a friend's house the night she disappeared.

"It was just a good day," Wade said. "We didn't have any reason to expect anything awful was going to happen."

His family never believed the two teens had run away, especially with no car.

In the four months following the teens' disappearance, the family wanted to believe the two would be found.

"There's always hope until there isn't anymore," he said. "All we could do was hope and pray, but that didn't pan out."

He said he is "cautiously optimistic" about prosecution and a conviction.

"There's no way that there will ever be closure," he said, "but justice would be nice."

Wade wants people to come forward not just for the sake of the investigation, but their own safety. He believes someone who could commit this type of crime and get away with it could try again.

"We don't know why Sally and Shane were killed, but we have to assume the people who did it would be willing to kill again to protect the secret," he said.

Whatever happens, "the victims are still dead, and the gap in your life is still there and always will be," Wade said. "All we can hope is that it doesn't happen to somebody else's kids."

Timeline

July 4, 1988: About midnight an Army Corps of Engineers Lake Ranger sees a copper-colored 1980 Chevrolet Camaro inside Isabel Harte Park at O.C. Fisher Reservoir with two occupants, a man and a woman, inside.

July 5, 1988: Shane Stewart's car is found at a different location inside Isabel Harte Park. Several items of evidence are recovered.

July 7, 1988: Stewart and Sally McNelly are classified as missing persons.

Nov. 11, 1988: Skeletal remains of McNelly are found about 4 miles south of Farm-to-Market Road 584 in the southeast portion of the south pool of Twin Buttes Reservoir.

Sept. 18, 1991: "Unsolved Mysteries" airs the first of several segments about Stewart and McNelly.

Numerous tips and leads are called in to the Tom Green County Sheriff's Office and Texas Department of Public Safety over the years. Investigations pick up when leads come in, but otherwise the case remains largely dormant.

February 2013: Tom Green County Sgt. Terry Lowe is assigned to reopen the case. Sgt. Ray Mellas is pulled in to assist.

Investigators encourage anyone with information about the case to contact Lowe at 325-655-8111, ext. 109, or Mellas at ext. 115. They can also be reached at terry.lowe@co.tom-green.tx.us and ray.mellas@co.tom-green.tx.us.